About the Book
Wolfgang Schivelbusch tells the story of the development of artificial light in the nineteenth century. Not simply a history of a technology Disenchanted Night revelas the ways that the technology of artificial illumination helped forge modern consciousness. In his strikingly illustrated and lively narrative Schivelbusch discusses a range of subject including the political symbolism of streetlamps the rise of nightlife and the shopwindow and the importance of the salon in bourgeois culture.